Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding winter feeding

For those that don't know my pond is 3.5 acres in middle Georgia. The pond is three years old.
I feed the fish during the warm weather with Purina or a floating catfish feed. Most years I stop feeding about mid November. This year being lazy I left my Kenco straight shooter running during December. When I went to get the feeder(December 7)
it still had a little feed in it so I tossed some in the pond. Much to my surpise the fish were still feeding. So I filled the feeder up and left it.
I have checked it most weekend since and the bream and hybrid stripers are still feeding. We have not had real cold weather so far until last week, lows in the 20's and highs in the 30's/40's. When I went to my farm saturday it was 35 degrees and I was sure the feeding would be over. Nope!
Here are my observations
-catfish will not eat when it is cold, hybrid bream and hybrid stripers will
-they will eat less but they are as active feeding as in warm weather.
-Must feed in one spot, during the summer I can put feed anywhere in the pond and the fish will find it. I tried this last saturday and they would only eat around the feeder.
-On warm winter days in past years I put some feed in and got no activity. If you are going to winter feed you must continue your summer feeding with no break.
What benefit do I hope to get from my winter feeding? First of all I like to watch the fish. Cats are not going to get any benefit since they are not eating. I hope my bream and stripers come out of the winter with at least no weight loss and healthier in the spring than they would have been otherwise.

I live in southwest georgia. I grew catfish commercially for awhile so that I could write off digging ponds. We never go more than 2-3 weeks without feeding our fish. For us we have had a cold winter, more freezes than normal. The last time I checked the water temp it was 52F close to the surface. Right now we are feeding about 25%-30% of what we would feed during late spring, summer, and early fall. I fed this past Saturday and the fish fed well, including the catfish. Although catfish will gain little or no weight during the real cold months feeding does help cut down on potential diseases. Early spring is a critcal time for catfish. They are more susceptible to parasites. Supposedly they will consume more sinking feed during cold months. We have never used any. I like to see if they are eating or not.

Hi Bill I did the same the other day here in North Alabama and they tore the surface up. So being a good pond owner I bought a tub of chicken livers the next day and caught 10 cats between 4 and 6 pounds! Made for some good winter time beer batter catfish. I still need to take out about 25 more before I restock in March.

And I am seeing no cats eat!

I'm sure you are like me and would like to actually see the fish. If you want to make sure that they have something to eat you could throw cottonseed planks out in the pond. Fathead minnows, crawfish, and any of your other forage fish would eat the cottonseed planks. I have placed traps out before with the cottonseed concealed where nothing larger than a fathead could actually get to it. Within 24 hrs. the cottonseed would be gone. Also, if you do put out cottonseed planks until they are eaten I guess your catfish would be even less likely to come to the surface to eat. What is the depth and water temp of your pond.

Swamp, have not checked the temp, depth varies from 3' to 14'

It's deep enough. Catfish typically won't feed if the water temp. is below 50F.

swampstalker, what are cottonseed planks?

Chris

Cottonseed planks or cakes are cottonseed milled and dried in sheets about 3/4". They are high protein. They are excellent for new ponds, baby fish, and newly released fish. Almost all fish will eat it. Catfish and fathead minnows are really fond of it. Check with your local livestock store I'm sure they will be able to assist you.

The cotton meal cake sounds like a good idea for fatheads - do you grind it before feeding?
george

No need to grind it. The longer it stays in the water the softer it becomes. The fatheads peck away until it is gone. Cottonseed planks are extremely beneficial to small fry after hatching as well. Catfish hatcheries often use it after transporting hatches of small fry from the nursery to ponds. We use it anytime we build a new pond or introduce new fish to a pond.

Last Saturday(Feb 21) Bream, Stripers and Cats were feeding. Outside temp was 51.